The monitoring of analyte concentration levels in a bio-fluid (e.g., blood) may be an important part of health management (testing and/or control). For example, analyte sensors (sometimes referred to as “test strips”) may be used for the monitoring of a patient's blood analyte level (e.g., glucose levels). In analyte testing, for example, the patient may use a portable lancing device that may be a spring-loaded, trigger-releasable device that receives a single-use, disposable lancet. When the lancet is released, it may prick the user's body part to produce a droplet of blood. That blood droplet may then be transferred to an analyte sensor that may interface with an analyte testing meter, such as a Blood Glucose Meter (BGM), to calculate and display an analyte measurement reading. Based upon the reading, certain control measures may be undertaken by the user.
Accurate analyte detection may therefore be important to ensure desirable control measures are undertaken. The accuracy of such analyte testing meters may be, at least in part, affected by being correctly calibrated. Calibration may be desired to account for batch-to-batch variations in the reagents applied to the analyte sensor. In some instances, calibration information may be manually entered. However, there is a marked trend towards the inclusion of auto-coding on the analyte sensor. In analyte testing meters utilizing auto-coding, the analyte testing meter reads the sensor's calibration information automatically, so that the user need not enter any calibration codes or other information. For example, the auto-coding may, in some existing systems, be accomplished by including multiple electrical contacts in the analyte meter that interface with multiple electrical contacts provided on the analyte sensor. The meter and sensor may then communicate electronically to obtain the auto-coding calibration information.
In multi-strip systems (e.g., ASSENCIA® BREEZE® or BREEZE® 2 Blood Glucose Meters available from Bayer Healthcare, LLC, the auto-coding information may be provided on, and read from, the analyte sensor packaging. This elimination of manual entry of the calibration code information both simplifies the management of the disease for the user, and minimizes any risk of improper manual entry that may affect an accuracy or precision of the analyte detection. However, it may be desirable to allow more simple access to the encoded information, and/or allow more information to be encoded.
It would, therefore, be beneficial to provide analyte sensors, apparatus, systems, and methods that exhibit improved auto-coding capability in terms of simplicity and/or amounts of information that may be encoded.